Auckland bounce back big time

Following their shock first-up loss, Auckland have put the rest of their Farah Palmer Cup opponents on notice, with their emphatic bounce-back in week two of the national women’s rugby competition.

After missing the final for the first time ever last year, Auckland were then upset 44-17 by fellow premiership side Manawatu in Pakuranga last Saturday, and it looked like they might be a vulnerable entity in 2018.

However, against championship opponent Tasman, at Eden Park on Friday night, Auckland ran riot in an 86-0 demolition which has them right back on track.

Tasman were coming off an opening-round 65-12 thrashing of Taranaki in Motueka, but the gulf in class across the competition was there for all to see, with the hosts running in 14 tries, and notching an exact 50 by halftime.

Second five-eighth Ruahei Demant scored a hat-trick and added eight conversions, for a personal haul of 31 points.

Centre Lauren Sa’u slid over out wide in just the second minute of the match, which paved the way for what was to come. Prop Margaret Vaiouga and lock Charmaine Smith bagged firsthalf doubles, with all four of those efforts coming from close range.

Winger Natahlia Moors was the other player to dot down twice, as the Tasman defence was cut to pieces time and again.

The other five matches of week two took place on Saturday afternoon, and the upshot is that Waikato are the only team in the premiership division who are two from two.

After upsetting 2016 champions and last year’s runners-up Counties Manukau, last weekend, Waikato – who have made just one final (runners-up in 2014) in the 18 years of the competition – backed that up with a comprehensive 44-7 win over Bay of Plenty in Matata.

The visitors led just 13-0 at the break, but raced away in the second spell to claim a bonus point.

Counties Manukau bounced back from their opening-round loss, with Manawatu unable to back up their win over Auckland, going down 31-22 in Papakura.

Defending champions Canterbury were undone 43-38 in their crossover clash against championship side Wellington in Porirua.

In a topsy-turvy affair, the visitors led 12-5 early, but it was Wellington who surged back with 17 unanswered points before halftime.

Canterbury came back to trail 24-22, then the hosts shot out to 43-24, before the red and blacks scored two more tries late to ensure they clinched two bonus points.

The only championship side two from two is Otago, who were comfortable 31-12 bonus-point winners over Hawke’s Bay in Dunedin, having led 24-5 at halftime.

Newly included Taranaki were put to the sword for a second successive week, hammered 59-0 by North Harbour in Inglewood.